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G R E E T I N G S
O K L A H O M A
FIREFIGHTERS!
Think about this:
There will always
be fires.
Lives will always
need to be saved.
Firefighters will
always be there
when the tones
drop.
It’s up to you --
your training, being safe, following or-ders
and doing the right thing -- to en-sure
Everyone Goes Home.
Now more than ever, the old adage
holds up, “We play the way we train!!!!”
Please take advantage of weekend fire
schools, NFA courses, and training op-portunities
with adjoining fire depart-ments.
McALESTER FIREFIGHTER CLASSIC
The McAlester Fire Department,
Pittsburg County Firefighters Associa-tion,
and Kiamichi Technology Center
teamed to present the largest fire
school of the year. Over 400 firefight-ers
from all across Oklahoma attended.
Multiple quality programs were offered
with instructors from Tech Rescue, The
Tulsa FOOLS, OKIMT, OHP, Oklahoma
Insurance Department, OSU-FST, Kiam-ichi
Tech, Rural Fire Coordinators, and
many more. Make plans now to attend
an even bigger and better McAlester
Classic next year! Please see the follow-ing
pages for coverage.
CURRENT EVENTS
We strive to keep you aware of cur-rent
events that effect firefighter safety
& health and the good of our fire ser-vice
in general. Please read the follow-ing
articles.
N.Y Man Sues Department, Town,
Over Fire Truck Crash.
Brian Kelly, Watertown daily Times, NY.
October 3, 2013
The suit alleges the Dexter firefight-er
was driving an “outdated and unin-spected”
1970 fire truck, and didn’t
stop at a stop sign.
Council on Firefighter Training
www.COFT-Oklahoma.org • 405-601-8862 • fax 405-601-7996 • email contact@coft-oklahoma.org
There Will Always Be Fires
Jon Hansen, COFT
Executive Director
A town of Hounsfield man has filed
suit against the town of Brownville
and its fire district over injuries he suf-fered
in a July 2012 collision with a fire
truck.
David A. Bolton filed state Supreme
Court action Wednesday at the Jeffer-son
County clerk’s office claiming he
suffered injuries, including a broken rib,
when his pickup truck was struck July
31, 2012, by a fire truck driven by a vol-unteer
firefighter, Patrick A. Amell, at
county routes 66 and 62 in the town of
Hounsfield. The suit also names Dexter
Fire Department Station No. 2 and Jef-ferson
County as defendants. Mr. Amell
is not named as a defendant in the ac-tion.
According to the suit, Mr. Amell was
driving an “outdated and uninspected”
1970 fire truck on County Route 66
when he failed to stop fully at a stop
sign at County Route 62, proceeding
through the intersection and striking
Mr. Bolton’s truck. Police said at the
time of the accident that Mr. Amell’s
view of potential cross traffic was ob-structed
by trees and no tickets were
issued.
Mr. Bolton’s action claims that the
defendants’ negligence has caused him
pain and suffering and permanent in-juries,
as well as “extensive” economic
and non-economic losses. The suit does
not specify an amount sought in dam-ages.
Mr. Bolton is represented by Wa-tertown
attorney Eric T. Swartz.
Supreme Court To Decide If Firefighter
Was Reckless
October 2, 2013, 5:45 PM by Ben
Dunsmoor
SPEARFISH, SD - If you’re a volun-teer
firefighter in South Dakota the Su-preme
Court is considering a case that
could affect you.
On Wednesday justices heard argu-ments
in a lawsuit involving a Chester
volunteer firefighter who was driving
more than 80 miles per hour when he
got into a crash in his personal pick-up
truck responding to a fire call.
“I want them to get to the fire but I
don’t want them to kill anybody,” Peter
Bendorf said.
Bendorf is the attorney for Areyman
Gabriel, a Sioux Falls man who was hit
by Chester volunteer firefighter Tim
Bauman.
Bauman hit Gabriel at an intersec-tion
north of Chester in 2007 while
speeding to a mobile home fire.
“The page indicated there were chil-dren
present but their parents were not
home. Clearly Bauman was responding
to a serious emergency situation,” Bau-man’s
attorney Lisa Prostrollo argued
Wednesday.
Gabriel had made a left hand turn in
front of Bauman as he came over a hill
and approached the intersection. Bau-man’s
attorney says he’s protected by
South Dakota’s Good Samaritan laws. A
lower court agreed and threw out the
lawsuit.
“The legislature enacted the Good
Samaritan statute for an important
reason. It intended to protect those citi-zens
who were seeking to render emer-gency
aid,” Prostrollo said.
Gabriel’s attorney is appealing the
decision to throw out the lawsuit argu-ing
that Bauman was driving his person-al
vehicle recklessly at more than twice
the posted speed limit on the way to the
call. He says Bauman should be held
responsible for the damage caused by
the crash.
“He stayed at 81 miles per hour
through a 40 mile per hour zone with
stopped traffic on his left and a resi-dential
area on his right,” Bendorf said.
“Let’s supposed Gabriel didn’t turn and
that he maintained his speed. Was he
still reckless? I believe that falls under
the meaning of criminal recklessness,”
Bendorf said.
It will now be up to the five justices to
determine if Bauman was reckless, or
doing everything he could to respond to
an emergency call.
It could take weeks or months for
the justices to make a final ruling in the
case.
Alabama Firefighter Killed if Fire
Apparatus Rollover
October-17-2013
We regret to advise you that a Fire-fighter
from the Oden Ridge Fire Rescue
in Morgan County, Alabama was killed
in the Line of Duty this afternoon. There
was only that one Firefighter on board
the pumper-tanker when it rolled.
The crash happened while he was
responding to a fire at around 14:39
central time this afternoon on Wilson
Mountain Road. This area is about 30
miles SW of Huntsville.
FF Jantzen Murrell Frazier, 28, was
responding to the scene of a fire when
the apparatus he was driving flipped
and slammed into power pole, knock-ing
it down. FF Frazier, a retired U.S.
Army Ranger/Sniper, was still fairly
new member of the Oden Ridge Fire
Rescue.
He was deployed to Iraq twice, where
he received five Purple Hearts for inju-ries
received in combat. YOU MAY rec-ognize
that FD name, as in 2011, an
Oden Ridge VFD apparatus went off the
same road, Wilson Mountain Road and
first, it hit a mailbox, 18-year-old FF Ben
Cahela was driving that day when he
over-corrected, crossed the road and
then crashed into the house. 19-year-old
Jessica Bullard was also a passen-ger
in the vehicle. Both were injured
but thankfully, in that crash, both were
wearing seat belts in that 2011 crash.
COULD IT HAPPEN TO US?
A court case anywhere in this great
nation of ours could have a direct effect
on each and every one of us, paid or vol-unteer!
Let’s use these pending cases
as “Lessons Learned,” and revisit our
Apparatus Operator SOP’s/SOG’s.
Let’s slow down and say alive!
THANKGIVING!
Thanksgiving is just around the cor-ner.
We have so much to be thankful
for, families, friends, and the greatest
profession in the world, being a fire-fighter,
paid or volunteer!
On behalf of your Council Members
and Staff, have a Blessed Thanksgiv-ing!!!!
JON
405-620-6262
jonh@coft-oklahoma.org

G R E E T I N G S
O K L A H O M A
FIREFIGHTERS!
Think about this:
There will always
be fires.
Lives will always
need to be saved.
Firefighters will
always be there
when the tones
drop.
It’s up to you --
your training, being safe, following or-ders
and doing the right thing -- to en-sure
Everyone Goes Home.
Now more than ever, the old adage
holds up, “We play the way we train!!!!”
Please take advantage of weekend fire
schools, NFA courses, and training op-portunities
with adjoining fire depart-ments.
McALESTER FIREFIGHTER CLASSIC
The McAlester Fire Department,
Pittsburg County Firefighters Associa-tion,
and Kiamichi Technology Center
teamed to present the largest fire
school of the year. Over 400 firefight-ers
from all across Oklahoma attended.
Multiple quality programs were offered
with instructors from Tech Rescue, The
Tulsa FOOLS, OKIMT, OHP, Oklahoma
Insurance Department, OSU-FST, Kiam-ichi
Tech, Rural Fire Coordinators, and
many more. Make plans now to attend
an even bigger and better McAlester
Classic next year! Please see the follow-ing
pages for coverage.
CURRENT EVENTS
We strive to keep you aware of cur-rent
events that effect firefighter safety
& health and the good of our fire ser-vice
in general. Please read the follow-ing
articles.
N.Y Man Sues Department, Town,
Over Fire Truck Crash.
Brian Kelly, Watertown daily Times, NY.
October 3, 2013
The suit alleges the Dexter firefight-er
was driving an “outdated and unin-spected”
1970 fire truck, and didn’t
stop at a stop sign.
Council on Firefighter Training
www.COFT-Oklahoma.org • 405-601-8862 • fax 405-601-7996 • email contact@coft-oklahoma.org
There Will Always Be Fires
Jon Hansen, COFT
Executive Director
A town of Hounsfield man has filed
suit against the town of Brownville
and its fire district over injuries he suf-fered
in a July 2012 collision with a fire
truck.
David A. Bolton filed state Supreme
Court action Wednesday at the Jeffer-son
County clerk’s office claiming he
suffered injuries, including a broken rib,
when his pickup truck was struck July
31, 2012, by a fire truck driven by a vol-unteer
firefighter, Patrick A. Amell, at
county routes 66 and 62 in the town of
Hounsfield. The suit also names Dexter
Fire Department Station No. 2 and Jef-ferson
County as defendants. Mr. Amell
is not named as a defendant in the ac-tion.
According to the suit, Mr. Amell was
driving an “outdated and uninspected”
1970 fire truck on County Route 66
when he failed to stop fully at a stop
sign at County Route 62, proceeding
through the intersection and striking
Mr. Bolton’s truck. Police said at the
time of the accident that Mr. Amell’s
view of potential cross traffic was ob-structed
by trees and no tickets were
issued.
Mr. Bolton’s action claims that the
defendants’ negligence has caused him
pain and suffering and permanent in-juries,
as well as “extensive” economic
and non-economic losses. The suit does
not specify an amount sought in dam-ages.
Mr. Bolton is represented by Wa-tertown
attorney Eric T. Swartz.
Supreme Court To Decide If Firefighter
Was Reckless
October 2, 2013, 5:45 PM by Ben
Dunsmoor
SPEARFISH, SD - If you’re a volun-teer
firefighter in South Dakota the Su-preme
Court is considering a case that
could affect you.
On Wednesday justices heard argu-ments
in a lawsuit involving a Chester
volunteer firefighter who was driving
more than 80 miles per hour when he
got into a crash in his personal pick-up
truck responding to a fire call.
“I want them to get to the fire but I
don’t want them to kill anybody,” Peter
Bendorf said.
Bendorf is the attorney for Areyman
Gabriel, a Sioux Falls man who was hit
by Chester volunteer firefighter Tim
Bauman.
Bauman hit Gabriel at an intersec-tion
north of Chester in 2007 while
speeding to a mobile home fire.
“The page indicated there were chil-dren
present but their parents were not
home. Clearly Bauman was responding
to a serious emergency situation,” Bau-man’s
attorney Lisa Prostrollo argued
Wednesday.
Gabriel had made a left hand turn in
front of Bauman as he came over a hill
and approached the intersection. Bau-man’s
attorney says he’s protected by
South Dakota’s Good Samaritan laws. A
lower court agreed and threw out the
lawsuit.
“The legislature enacted the Good
Samaritan statute for an important
reason. It intended to protect those citi-zens
who were seeking to render emer-gency
aid,” Prostrollo said.
Gabriel’s attorney is appealing the
decision to throw out the lawsuit argu-ing
that Bauman was driving his person-al
vehicle recklessly at more than twice
the posted speed limit on the way to the
call. He says Bauman should be held
responsible for the damage caused by
the crash.
“He stayed at 81 miles per hour
through a 40 mile per hour zone with
stopped traffic on his left and a resi-dential
area on his right,” Bendorf said.
“Let’s supposed Gabriel didn’t turn and
that he maintained his speed. Was he
still reckless? I believe that falls under
the meaning of criminal recklessness,”
Bendorf said.
It will now be up to the five justices to
determine if Bauman was reckless, or
doing everything he could to respond to
an emergency call.
It could take weeks or months for
the justices to make a final ruling in the
case.
Alabama Firefighter Killed if Fire
Apparatus Rollover
October-17-2013
We regret to advise you that a Fire-fighter
from the Oden Ridge Fire Rescue
in Morgan County, Alabama was killed
in the Line of Duty this afternoon. There
was only that one Firefighter on board
the pumper-tanker when it rolled.
The crash happened while he was
responding to a fire at around 14:39
central time this afternoon on Wilson
Mountain Road. This area is about 30
miles SW of Huntsville.
FF Jantzen Murrell Frazier, 28, was
responding to the scene of a fire when
the apparatus he was driving flipped
and slammed into power pole, knock-ing
it down. FF Frazier, a retired U.S.
Army Ranger/Sniper, was still fairly
new member of the Oden Ridge Fire
Rescue.
He was deployed to Iraq twice, where
he received five Purple Hearts for inju-ries
received in combat. YOU MAY rec-ognize
that FD name, as in 2011, an
Oden Ridge VFD apparatus went off the
same road, Wilson Mountain Road and
first, it hit a mailbox, 18-year-old FF Ben
Cahela was driving that day when he
over-corrected, crossed the road and
then crashed into the house. 19-year-old
Jessica Bullard was also a passen-ger
in the vehicle. Both were injured
but thankfully, in that crash, both were
wearing seat belts in that 2011 crash.
COULD IT HAPPEN TO US?
A court case anywhere in this great
nation of ours could have a direct effect
on each and every one of us, paid or vol-unteer!
Let’s use these pending cases
as “Lessons Learned,” and revisit our
Apparatus Operator SOP’s/SOG’s.
Let’s slow down and say alive!
THANKGIVING!
Thanksgiving is just around the cor-ner.
We have so much to be thankful
for, families, friends, and the greatest
profession in the world, being a fire-fighter,
paid or volunteer!
On behalf of your Council Members
and Staff, have a Blessed Thanksgiv-ing!!!!
JON
405-620-6262
jonh@coft-oklahoma.org